Easter Seals pool is the only therapeutic warm water pool up here on the NorthCoast- it is indoors and has a wheelchair ramp. The facility also provides art, cooking, and other such classes.

The facility will be closing on April 30th if the community doesn’t keep it open.

Vector Rehab Services, with the intent of taking the facility over, investing in some construction repairs and upgrades, and continuing to maintain the pool and other therapeutic and rehabilitative resources, needs more time to complete the proposal and buying process. Easter Seals San Francisco, however, wants to sell the property off immediately to the highest bidder, threatening the communities who use it- elderly, disabled, and injured. The facility was originally donated about 60 years ago to serve these communities, and has been a unique and critical component to their health and enjoyment. The warm water pool is one of the few places where people who use wheelchairs or have difficulties with movement, many who are landlocked, chairlocked, or bedridden, can comfortably relax, move more freely, and in some cases, enjoy rare times of extended mobility. The pool is often full because it is a vital resource for the quality of life and health of so many people.

Easter Seals, headquartered in San Francisco, is telling the local community to “butt out” and “mind your own business.” Easter Seals does not care or want to hear from the affected public.

All we need is for Easter Seals to wait long enough for Vector, which wants to add a pool to its public resources, to purchase the property.

Tomorrow, Thursday April 29, 11:30am to 4pm there will be a protest in front of the Humboldt Courthouse in Eureka.

We just need time, so that Vector can get all the paperwork together to buy it and keep the pool open!

Easter Seals is not supposed to be about profit and the highest bidder; Easter Seals is supposed to work in the interest of elderly, injured, and disabled people. People travel from Trinidad, Fortuna, and all over the county to get healing, freedom, and community at the Easter Seals facility. It would be a horrible loss for all of us if Easter Seals pushes for developers to move in.

Please join the PROTEST tomorrow and/or
CONTACT Easter Seals Northern California by phone at (415) 382-7450 or
Email cking@noca.easterseals.com or
WRITE a Letter to the Editor to our local papers or to the Press Democrat in Santa Rosa.

Also, as suggested in a handout from the protest today: If you drive by the pool on Edgewood Road , and you see a real estate sign (or are aware of developers looking at the property), contact them and ask them to keep “hands off” this property. Give the “save the Pool” committee a chance to submit a proposal.

Show your support for this facility to remain in the service of the people who need it.

Community Organizer’s discussion with guest, Malik Rahim (co-founder Common Ground Collective/Relief/Health Clinics) on Friday the 30th, at the BSS Native Forum at Humboldt State University at 1:00 p.m.

Malik doesn’t make it out this way very often, especially to rural areas in the west.

His history includes organizing for peace as a veteran, fighting for justice as a Black Panther, organizing for housing rights as a community organizer, and advocating for the incarcerated both while inside, and as they transition out of the institutions. He has also ran for mayor and City Council in New Orleans.

This long list is to say nothing of his tenure as a relief organizer, or his co-founding of Common Ground Collective, Common Ground Relief, and Common Ground Health Clinics.

Malik’s famous and dignified interview with Amy Goodman that literally uncovered a man’s abandoned body in the streets of New Orleans–exposed some of the horrific scenes that African American people endured in the aftermath of Katrina, and initiated an international response to communities in the Gulf.

The Civil Liberties Defense Center [CLDC] Humboldt is hosting Malik Rahim on campus Thursday April 29th at 6pm in the BSS forum. Malik is a community activist and organizer, a veteran of the New Orleans Chapter of the Black Panther Party and a long-time housing and prison activist who founded the Common Ground Collective, formed in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to provide immediate relief and long-term solidarity to residents of the Gulf Coast. Malik will talk about his work doing prisoner rights advocacy and about how communities can organize effectively to combat the prison industrial complex.

“Confronting the Prison Industrial Complex: The Liberation Struggle Against the Modern Slave System”

New Orleans Activist Malik Rahim Blasts Mayor NaginSeptember 05, 2005 | StoryMalik Rahim, veteran of the Black Panther Party in New Orleans, is interviewed in the Algiers neigherborhood by Democracy Now! producers. Rahim talks about what should have been differently. [includes …

November 27, 2006 | StoryOver 100 families living in an apartment complex in the Algiers neighborhood of New Orleans are facing eviction. Tenants in the complex recently received notices telling them they had to vacate the …

Interview About Herman WallaceFebruary 19, 1999 | StoryWhile Albert Woodfox was granted a new trial and faces re-sentencing, his friend and fellow Black Panther, Herman Wallace is filing an appeal that his case be overturned. Malik Rahim, a former Black …

WALL STREETJuly 02, 1997 | StoryThe financial markets continue to soar and share prices are hitting undreamed-of heights. And in the process, more and more Americans are exposing their pensions and life savings in the stock market.

Body discovered at encampment

A 50-year-old woman was found dead at a homeless encampment at the far eastern end of Fifth Street behind the Safeway grocery store Tuesday afternoon.

Del Norte County Sheriff’s Office authorities said it does not appear that foul play was involved in her death, and an autopsy is scheduled for Friday afternoon.

Toxicology results will probably not be available for several weeks after that.

The woman’s name was not available Tuesday evening, and Sheriff’s Office Commander Tim Athey said officials are waiting to confirm whether her next of kin has been notified about her death before releasing that information.

According to Athey, the woman was found dead inside her tent by another homeless person who was living at the encampment.

Crescent City’s temperature dipped as low as 46 degrees early Tuesday morning, and a steady rain fell overnight and throughout the day.

In the past three years, at least two other homeless people have died in the wetland area behind Safeway and Ray’s Food Place near Elk Creek.

Both individuals, a 31-year-old male and 47-year-old female, appeared to have died due to exposure to the elements.

Do you know what to do if you’re stopped by the police? Do your children? Are you tired of your rights being violated? This workshop focuses on the law “on the street” — what your rights are and how cops try to trick you out of them. We want to share strategies to survive police encounters.

First Friday Actions May 7th. and June 4th.

Dear Friends,

Two years into the “Great Recession”, nearly 30 million people are unemployed or underemployed*. As people lose their jobs they also lose their health insurance and as unemployment benefits run out, they find themselves in dire financial straits. Millions of working people have lost their homes, and tens of thousands are homeless. Basic human needs are not being meet*. We are asking groups to hold actions and educational events starting with First Friday actions on May 7th. and June 4th. 2010. Why the First Friday?

On the first Friday of each month the Labor Dept. releases the previous month’s unemployment numbers, and the issue of unemployment and joblessness gets regular attention from the news media.

We are asking groups to organize rallies, picket lines and news conferences aimed at local sites on the First Friday or Saturday or on another day during this spring. We encourage people to organize town hall meetings or teach-ins on unemployment and the economic crisis. We urge groups to brainstorm creative actions to bring attention to the unemployment crisis and the need for a significant jobs bill. We will be linking these actions to other human needs fights and specific local issues.

For Jobs and Peace Logan Martinez,

Outreach Coordinator / The National Jobs for All Coalition / Campaign to Create Living Wage Jobs for All*

937-275-7259 / loganmartinez2u@yahoo.com

*1. February’s Officially unemployed: 14.9 million (9.7%)

Hidden unemployment: 15 million, 8.8 million working part-time because can’t find a full-time job and 6.2 million people who want jobs but are not looking so are not counted in official statistics.

*2. Tens of thousands of unemployed people are running out unemployment benefits each week, even with the extended benefits. The most a worker can receive is 99 weeks and the unemployed who lost their jobs at the beginning of recession are running out now. Less than half unemployed are receiving unemployment benefits. TANF time limits, sanctions and low grants are pushing millions of American families deeper into poverty. Most states have no program to support unemployed single adults living without adequate income.